SERC contains an extensive forest at 38 53'N, 76 33'W. This is 25 miles east of Washington, D.C. and 10 miles south of Annapolis, Maryland, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

The site of the Deciduous Canopy Observatory is 11 meters above MSL and very flat; mean rainfall is 1080 mm and mean temperature is 13.2 °C.

The vegetation is continuous for 2 km in most directions: mature, deciduous mixed forest, mature, of the "tulip poplar association" type, with a canopy height around 36 meters. Maximum height is about 40 meters, and a leaf-area density distribution has understory and overstory peaks.